ANIMATION GOOROO CAMERON EDSER
In his first year out of university, Film and Television graduate and now co-Director of GooRoo Animation, Cameron Edser has certainly made his presence felt on the international film circuit.
His graduation film, Animal Instincts, has notched up awards in a number of significant industry events, including:
- Skidmore International Student Film Festival, Saratoga NY – Voted by audience as second overall;
- Short Sited Film Festival, Wollongong Australia – National Winner, Open All Ages category;
- National Film Festival for Talented Youth, Seattle Washington – Awarded Jury Prize for Best Animation, as well as the Thomson Young Innovator of the Year Award.
Cameron is no stranger to success, having won his first animation award for Umbrellas at the Outback Youth Film Festival in 2002, when he was a Year 9 student at Concordia College in Adelaide.
That same year, his second film, Cows with Guns, was named Most Outstanding Film at the South Australian Young Film-Makers Awards in Adelaide and went on to win Best Non-Fiction Film at the 2003 Trinity Grammar International Student Film Festival and Best Secondary Animation Film at the 2003 Australian Teachers of Media Awards in Melbourne.
This talented and still-very-young animator first came to Bond’s attention when he entered two short films in the 2003 BUFTAs; ultimately taking out the Craft Award for Production for Bang Bang and Best Animation for Stackhat.
He was back again the following year to take out Best Animation for The Cow Goat Song and, in 2005, he won Best Film and a full scholarship to study a Bachelor of Film and Television at Bond with The Bushman of Bunyip Billabong.
This quirky claymation short, based on Waltzing Matilda’s jolly swagman, continued to win awards through 2005 and 2006 at international film festivals here in Australia and in Germany, Austria, Canada and across the USA.
Meanwhile, Cameron moved to the Gold Coast to start his studies at Bond where he dedicated a full year to creating his next claymation award-winner, Animal Instincts.
"One of the stand-out moments at Bond would have to be Centrescreen 2007," says Cameron.
"The Cerum Theatre was packed and I sat there with 500 people watching my graduation film being shown on the big screen in high definition, listening to the audience erupt in laughter and applause."
During his first year at Bond, Cameron also found time to develop a proposal to open an animation studio in partnership with fellow animator, Michael Richards.
The pair submitted their innovative concept to the Nescafe Big Break Competition and walked away with a major prize of $15,000 to help them turn their dream into a reality.
Cameron and Michael are now co-directors of GooRoo Animation which is forging an international reputation in the wake of Animal Instincts’ success on the film festival circuit.
Acting Prime Minister and Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, the Hon. Julia Gillard MP, officially opened Australia’s first 6 Star, Green Star designed educational building at Bond on August 11.
Bond University is the highest rated university in Queensland after earning the maximum five-star rating across an impressive ten key performance indicators in the 2009 Good Universities Guide.
Following our state-topping performance in the Good Universities Guide, Bond’s quality teaching and learning practices have again been recognised by an independent body, this time, by the prestigious Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC- formerly the Carrick Institute).
The Bond University Postgraduate Centre, located in the heart of Sydney’s central business district, was officially launched on August 7. 
Leading family business researchers from around the nation and the world gathered at Bond University on Monday, August 4, for the First Annual Australian Family Business Researchers’ Summit.
Bond University has teamed up with IBM to launch a new Master of Service Management, designed to address the critical shortage of service management professionals.
All four of Bond’s Faculties were kept busy over the past month, hosting various events that gave the public, school groups and industry professionals a chance to share in the quality learning experience that our students experience on a daily basis.
This month we recognise Senior Teaching Fellow Tina Hunter from the Law Faculty (pictured), and Rugby League gun, Bond student Nuku Hifo. Plus, find out how you can nominate your favourite lecturer for the National Lecturer of the Year Competition.
Bond University will go public this Sunday (August 17), with hundreds of students, their family, friends and the wider Gold Coast public set to enjoy the University’s Open Day festivities from 10am – 3pm.
